There are various applications where it may be beneficial to know the energy levels that will result across a targeted region from transmissions from a specific transmitting platform. For example, in jamming applications, the overall effect of a jamming operation may depend upon the level of energy that a jamming transmitter can place at a receiver location.
Knowledge of energy levels generated across a targeted region from a transmitting platform may also be useful for making design modifications to a transmitter design so that a more desirable energy pattern may be achieved for performing a particular application. Prior techniques for estimating energy-on-target typically utilized a simplified ray-optical approach for an antenna pattern that treats a directional antenna like a triangle that puts a circular or oval pattern of uniform power on a targeted region. In other words, these prior techniques indicated a constant signal level inside an antenna beam width, with little or no information outside the antenna beam width. Such approaches limit both the accuracy and the usefulness of the resulting data.
Techniques and systems are needed for more accurately predicting energy-on-target information for a transmitting system.